


How's It Go Again?

by stardustedknuckles



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Divergent, Confessions, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Light BDSM, Light Bondage, Porn with Feelings, Yasha does get at least partially involved, beau's friends love her and she just has to deal with that, but like kindly, or friends as the case may be, pike is included sexually but not romantically, post-kamordah beau meets ray of sunshine pike, sex as a processing tool, she's just helping out her new friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:09:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28724871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustedknuckles/pseuds/stardustedknuckles
Summary: Beau told the Nein she just needed a night to herself, after Kamordah and once Veth had been restored to her proper body. She'd been lying, of course, but fate has other plans.OrPost-Kamordah Beau is a raw nerve and Pike is a healer who knows what she's looking at.
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Pike Trickfoot, Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Pike Trickfoot & Yasha
Comments: 24
Kudos: 131





	1. Hello, Hello

**Author's Note:**

> I developed a crush on Pike out of the clear blue sky, and the thought of Beau being at the center of that concentrated kindness just...yes. No hard feelings if it's not your thing, but I've had fun writing it.

The Nein been understanding, and that was the worst of it.

They fucking trusted her, after everything, that when she said she would meet them again in the morning, she would.

How could they? As far as Beau knew, she was lying. No part of her could go back to them after having willingly walked away after they asked her not to.

And she'd said she'd stay. To Caleb, with his halting request and awkward arm slug, to Jester, bright and furious and radiant in her affection for Beau. She'd said it to them all.

She was seven blocks away, tops. It didn't feel possible to go back, but could she really just keep going? What the fuck was with her and cutting out the possibility of something good being allowed to happen to her?

Beau slapped another silver on the bar and tried not to think about how it had been earned. There was nothing she had pre-Nein - nothing to offer. Every coin she spent, every tie she used to pull her hair up, all of them were linked inexorably to the group of people she'd left watching her go with sorrow and pity they were trying to hide for her sake.

Fucking ridiculous.

Her mind was tugging again, steering towards the thoughts she was fighting hardest to keep away from. What would Yasha think, about Beau leaving? And why did it matter? She was just guilty, right, about putting a hole through the middle of Beau. Hardly a minute went by that she wasn't conscious of Yasha's eyes on her, and it made her feel vaguely ill. How long had she wanted just that, Yasha watching her, only for it to finally happen because of guilt over something that wasn't even her fault?

Was there anything at all to Beau that wasn't bound up in shit that had happened to her? She wasn't certain anymore.

"Excuse me."

The voice came from Beau's knee, perched as she was on a barstool, and when she looked towards it she was startled to feel tears dislodging from her eyes. She wiped them away angrily and sniffed at the cloaked figure.

"Not a good night," she said. Which, given the mood Beau was in, was a pretty fucking respectable response if she could say so herself.

"I know," came the voice again. "That's why I came over."

Maybe it was the ale, but Beau found herself more intrigued than defensive as she turned again. The figure lifted small hands to her hood and pulled it back to reveal a gnommish woman with a shock of white hair, bright blue eyes, and the kindest smile Beau could remember seeing since…fuck, who knew?

"I'm Pike," said the gnome, but she didn't hold out her hand to shake. "I saw you and your group after…everything. You did a great service for Exandria, taking down the cult."

A shock of resentment rippled through Beau and she snorted. She was halfway to comment about never meeting your heroes, but it seemed wrong somehow to throw something like that onto this vaguely cherubic woman standing alongside her. So she just said, "Beau. And I thought they were keeping that shit under wraps."

Pike nodded gravely. "Certainly. But my information came from my patron and brought me here to help." She smiled at Beau, and it was a smile like she'd known Beau for years - no, not even that she'd known Beau, but some better, greater version of Beau. "I haven't felt the call to leave yet," she said, "and I think I might know why now."

This whole thing should have been unnerving, but it was like Beau couldn't bring herself to get properly mad. And that sucked, because anger was a useful thing to have when she needed a handhold. Gods knew she needed a handhold. "So what," she said. "Is that a pickup line? You're telling me we were fated to meet?"

The gnome's small hand on her knee was warm and surprisingly unobtrusive, and she didn't look perturbed in the slightest when Beau jumped away instinctively - nor did she give anything away when she immediately relaxed again. "Beau," she said, ignoring her outburst. "That's a really nice name for you. Do you know why I'm here?"

Beau was starting to feel a little off balance in a way that had little to do with alcohol. "Uh…because you haven't been called away yet?"

The gnome - Pike - laughed, and it was an oddly musical sound. "I mean here, in a brothel."

Now that she'd asked, it occurred to Beau to be puzzled. Pike was a shaft of light in a dark room, out of place among the travelers and wealthy merchants that tended to turn up in places like this. It was hard to imagine this gnome looking for a quick fuck in an acceptable bed.

Still, Beau didn't have a better answer. "To get laid?"

Pike raised and lowered an easy shoulder, still smiling. "On occasion. But mostly, it reminds me of my younger days as an adventurer. I had a group of friends like yours - don't snort," she commanded, and though her voice took on a hard edge it was not unkind. "We were. But I had a sort of a different calling even though I was a part of them, and that meant a lot of times they had to go on and save the world without me." She gestured around. "I used to come to these places to pass the time when it got a little rough."

Beau tried very hard not to think of Yasha, but it wasn't like her mind had many other places to go lately. "Sounds lonely."

Pike considered. "I think it was, once. Now it's just a thing I do when I want to think back on them for a while." She peered at Beau. "But I don't get the feeling you're in quite the same position."

Beau's defenses, rendered oddly weakened by Pike's charm, stirred to life and slammed up with something like relief. "None of your business," she said shortly. "You seem nice enough, but - and no offense - I came here to get railed until I can't think straight. The talking's a bit beyond me."

"Oh, of course." Pike nodded but didn't move away. "I actually didn't come here to talk either. You got me going there, Beau." She flashed that same overwhelming smile. "I came to take you up to my room if you were willing."

Beau blinked at her, distantly irritated to find that one, she didn't hate the idea and two, there was not nearly enough ale inside of her to blame that on.

A suspicion flashed through her mind - was she charmed? - but it passed as quickly as it came. She might be, but it wasn't anything magical. There was just something about Pike that was magnetic. And while part of Beau thought it might be a bad idea to go up to the room of a random stranger who didn't work for the tavern, another part of her hungered for the risk of it.

Which in itself was weird, because there was nothing resembling risk coming off of this woman.

Which was suspicious.

"Fuck, fine," Beau snapped. Anything to stop the spiral. She slammed back the rest of her ale and stood up, gesturing grandly. "After you."

Pike placed her hand on Beau's hip and looked up at her. This time she didn't smile, at least not visually. Beau could still feel it somehow, a radiating presence of warmth and supremely undeserved affection that made half of her want to take off running and the other half to crawl inside of it, try to be half of whatever Pike saw. "I'm gonna take good care of you, Beau. I promise."

Beau felt her face flush and glared away even as she let Pike take her hand and start walking. "That really, really would not sound the same coming from literally anyone else."

"it's a gift," Pike replied over her shoulder. Beau had no trouble believing it.

* * *

Of all the things Beau expected to feel when she stood in the rented room and looked around, loss wasn't one of them. Pike quietly shut the door behind them and locked it with a deliberate sort of loudness that Beau wasn't certain was meant to arouse or reassure. It didn't really matter, because she was feeling both under the strange and yawning sense of loneliness that came at the idea she might not ever spend another night in one of these places with her family.

She realized Pike's footsteps had halted and turned to look at her. Pike was standing still and just gazing at her like she knew what Beau was thinking somehow. "Get undressed," she said kindly. "Let's get you situated and find out what you need."

Most nights, with most people, Beau would have balked. Said "make me" or taken over herself. And she was still considering it when she saw Pike rummage through a small bag and pull out improbably long restraints. She caught Beau's eye and said, "We're not doing anything you don't want to. I'm just pulling out some options."

Beau pulled at the material of her top and slid it over her head. The air was chilly on her breasts, and it cleared her mind a little, reminded her what they were there. "It's not my usual," she said, hooking her fingers into her pants and pushing down. "But that's true for a lot of this I guess." Except the running. That was fucking predictable as all hell.

"We'll figure it out," Pike promised, and then her clever fingers began working at the straps of the light armor that was under the cloak she'd dropped on the way in.

It should have been awkward, undressing in the silence, but something about Pike made Beau anxious in a way that edged closer to arousal than to discomfort. It should have been awkward when Pike's hands gripped Beau's hips and pulled her to the bed to sit her down, or when she settled herself to stand between Beau's thighs and hold her face.

But Pike had an energy to her that Beau couldn't name, a confidence that made her feel it was okay to let someone else run the show for a while. You didn't run across people like Pike every day, and gods knew someone besides Beau needed to take the wheel of things for a little while.

"Can I kiss you, Beau?"

She nodded, but Pike's thumbs only brushed her lips. "I need you to use your words, okay?"

Heat spread across Beau's face. "I…I'll try."

Pike smiled, and somehow the effort felt worth it. "Trying is all you can do."

Beau felt tears coming for some reason and shoved them angrily away. "Yeah," she said. "Kiss me."

Pike's lips on hers were friendly, all questing, confident tongue and firm pressure. She kissed like she was trying to give something to Beau, even if she didn't know how to receive it. She kissed Beau like she knew her, and it left her feeling somewhat wrong-footed that she couldn't seem to catch up.

But Pike didn't seem to mind. She kissed Beau like there was all the time in the world, occasionally pulling back to pepper her jaw, her cheeks, her brow before returning to her mouth.

"Can I touch you?" she asked.

Beau nodded, remembered Pike's condition. "Yes. Anywhere but the scar." She didn't have to specify which one; it looked weeks older than it was but still stood out a fresh and livid pink against her skin. "Can I touch you?"

Pike looked thoughtful. "I get the feeling you don't let a lot of good things happen for you, so no."

Beau must have looked a little lost, because Pike smiled and kissed her with a level of affection that felt slightly out of place with the warmth starting to gather all over Beau.

"Would it help if I narrowed down your options?" Pike asked. "Tied your hands for you?"

The "for you" startled Beau a little bit - she'd never considered it that way. Having Pike tie her so she couldn't get in the way of a good thing. Damn, that was a thought. "Yeah," she managed as Pike ran her fingers gently through the top of Beau's undercut. "I think that would help, actually."

Pike's hands dropped to Beau's shoulders to rub the outsides of them lightly. "Good girl," she said, and Beau felt something inside of her draw taut. She gently probed the space in her where annoyance should have been, some bucking against being talked to like a pet. But all she could find was delight, the desire to be worth the favor Pike gave so freely.

"You can tell me any time you want to stop," Pike said when she stepped in close again with the lengths of rope. "I think I have a good idea of what's gonna work best for you, but you have final say."

Beau blinked down at the ropes and reached a hesitant hand to touch them. She made quiet noise of surprise. "They're soft."

"Of course!" Pike sounded almost affronted. "This is supposed to be nice. I promised to take care of you."

Beau squinted up at her with a sudden suspicion, tall as she was when standing between her legs. "Do I remind you of someone?"

Pike grinned. "Yep. Don't worry, I really liked him."

Beau wasn't sure whether to pause on the past tense or the "him." Pike guided Beau's other wrist up and lay the rope across them, giving Beau a moment to consider before she nodded. Her mouth felt dry, but something strong began coiling inside of her with every slide of the rope against her skin. Helplessness rose in her, broke on the rocks of the kind face trained on the ropes and pulling with slow confidence.

When Pike was done and Beau's wrists were bound, even just the consideration of being almost completely at the mercy of this radiant woman had Beau's thighs shifting closer together.

But Pike's feet didn't move to allow her, and her hand on Beau's cheek was soft. "How does it feel?"

"I…" Beau couldn't put a name to the feeling of being bound without danger, to the hard evidence that she had no control but what Pike allowed her. But she had to try. "I think…free?" Her voice shook, and she looked up to find Pike watching her with that look again, the one that said she saw something Beau couldn't and liked it.

She kissed Beau again with a delight that made her smile, and it grew at Pike's obvious joy in seeing it. "Beau, you're remarkable," she said. "I can't wait to taste you."

A shaky laugh fell out of Beau at the friction between those sentences - startling, but right. "I think me either. But I'm really enjoying this."

"Good," said Pike, and it was.

She met Pike's next kiss with more initiative, darted her tongue this time to taste her firm upper lip. Pike let her for a moment, and then she chased Beau back the way someone might pen a sheep - like Beau had a safe place to be and it was up to Pike to put her there.

"Don't worry," said Pike when she pulled away again. "We're not gonna rush any of this." Her voice was confident, as were her small fingers as they sought Beau's nipples to tug them gently.

Beau had always reacted well to having her tits played with, but something about having her hands tied amplified the whole experience. She tipped her head back and groaned, charmed in spite of herself by the way Pike giggled before letting go to grasp Beau's forearms. "I was thinking I would tie these up and out of our way, would that be alright?" She nodded to the headboard and let Beau take a moment to connect the dots.

Beau hesitated, but she had trouble coming up with any good reason to say no. Her instincts had kept her alive this far, and even in spit of the strange set of circumstances that had brought them here, Beau liked Pike. She nodded somewhat jerkily and felt rewarded when Pike flashed her another bright grin and kissed her cheek.

"I think you'll like this a lot," she said. "But remember you can say stop or no to any part of things. I won't be mad." Somehow relieved, Beau watched Pike wind another length of rope through the soft loops already cuffing her. She wondered why it mattered to her whether Pike was mad or not, and from there it was a reflexive jump to thinking about how angry the Nein would be at her leaving.

That was good, she told herself. If they were mad, she couldn't give in to weakness and go crawling back.

Beau's hands were jerked forward a few inches, just enough to startle her from her thoughts, and she looked up to find Pike watching her with the solemnity that had been there at the start, down in the tavern. "I can tell there's something bothering you," she said, "but try to stay here with me, okay?"

Beau liked the sound of Pike's "with me" - it sounded inviting, personal in a way that belied their extremely short acquaintanceship. "I'm trying," she said, and it was true. She held up her bound wrists. "This is helping."

"Good," Pike beamed. "It's supposed to. Come over here and face the wall, please." As Beau shifted somewhat awkwardly up onto the mattress to shuffle closer, Pike continued. "I wasn't sure if I wanted you on your knees or on your back, but I think I have more ideas for ways to focus you this way for now."

"For now?" Beau echoed dumbly.

Pike finished tying off the ropes to the headboard and gave them an experimental tug. "Does that feel good?" When Beau flexed her fingers and nodded, Pike reached out to rub gently at the permanently dark knuckles of her left hand. "For now," she confirmed. "I plan to keep you here for a while, is that okay?"

Beau had planned on a quick fuck and hitting the road, but that had probably gone out the window as soon as the rope had gotten involved. She got the odd feeling that Pike knew somehow, that she was on the move.

Still, this whole thing was turning out better than she'd hoped, and leaving was leaving no matter when she did it.

And it wouldn't hurt to give herself a night to sleep on it.

"I'm all yours," she said wryly. "Nothing but time."

Pike came up to Beau's shoulder when she was up on her knees like this, and she pressed a kiss to Beau's bicep. "I know." Her small hands pushed at Beau's hips, and she said, "Hold onto the headboard and push your knees back and wider for me. That's very good, thank you."

Beau couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this exposed, and she was certain she'd never been so relaxed while feeling trapped.

Probably because she knew she wasn't actually trapped. The knowledge that the choice to be here at Pike's mercy was hers lent her a kind of agency that made the anticipation and the feeling of being bound in one place exciting and arousing instead of scary.

Her back was parallel to the sheets, hands gripping the headboard and her cunt spread wide for whatever Pike had planned. She could feel air cooling the slick between her legs and realized for the first time that she was soaked.

She guessed by Pike's appreciative hum that she had noticed this too, but her hand when she touched Beau rested on her ass as she said, "I'm not going to try and surprise you with any tricks tonight, Beau. I want you to know what I'm going to do every step of the way."

Beau hadn't realized she needed to hear that, but she felt some knot she hadn't noticed dissolving inside of her at the words. "Yeah," she replied. "That sounds good." She adjusted a little in her bonds and turned over her shoulder to look at Pike. "I really like your voice, too."

Pike's nails drifted gently over Beau's skin just below the dimples at the base of her spine. "Oh thanks," she said, "I get that a lot." She leaned to get a good look at Beau's open center. "You're really pretty down here," she remarked. "I don't know if you know."

Heat rose in Beau's cheeks and she stammered on the reply. "I uh, thanks? I don't get that a lot."

Pike laughed softly and stepped fully behind her to place her other hand on Beau's other side. "I'm going to do this for a minute," she said, kneading and petting Beau's ass, "and then I'm going to hit you a few times. Not to hurt," she added. "Just to get you nice and worked up."

It was true that for all of her gathered wetness, Beau herself was feeling more relaxed than aroused. "Sounds good," she said. "Should I be quiet?" The question felt odd in her mouth, another one of those things she didn't usually think about. It seemed polite somehow, to reciprocate the kindness radiating from the gnome between her legs by making this nice for her too.

"You can talk as much or as little as you like," Pike replied, which was the answer Beau had pretty much anticipated. "Tell me more about your friends if you want, or when you like something I'm doing." She kneaded Beau a little more firmly and said, grinning now, "Just don't tell me what to do unless it's to slow down or stop."

If it were anyone else, Beau would press their buttons a little just for kicks. But she just nodded and turned back to face the wall, letting her shoulders take her weight for a little while as Pike worked her over.

With her thoughts free to wander, they turned infuriatingly but unsurprisingly to the Nein again, to her plan to leave. Would they scry on her, come after her? It was an odd question for Beau to even ask herself - of course they wouldn't. Whether out of respect or anger, the end result would be the same. They'd take the time they needed to move on, and then they would.

"Beau." Pike's voice was a warning, but not an unkind one.

"I know." Beau was aggravated with herself and searched desperately for a way to get back on track, lose her mind in something else. "Tell me about your friends," she said. Pike's hands stilled, and Beau nearly tripped over her tongue to correct herself. "Will you tell me about your friends?"

Pike pinched her in what Beau hoped was a fond kind of way, and when her hands started up again she tried not to collapse and give away her deep relief.

"I love my friends and talking about them, it's true," Pike said. "But the point here is to stay on you." She dug her nails in just enough to make Beau hiss and press into her. "I can tell you one thing though." Her voice was quieter now, wistful. "Yours really don't want to be without you."

Beau frowned. "Do you know them or something?"

"I don't have to. They'll be looking for you."

It was hard to stay in her thoughts with Pike's hands moving inwards towards her cunt, and Beau couldn't find it within herself to get too worked up about the fact that it was probably intentional.

Her mind was fading but not yet off, and she could almost feel it jump tracks as she processed Pike's words fully. She turned to look at her. "Is that what you're keeping me here for?"

Pike's smile was bright and unapologetic. "I give it another hour, two tops. Now turn back around."

She couldn't help it - Beau's heart twisted at the thought. Shame as she obeyed, but there was some hope in there too. "Guess we'll see," she said. "Five gold says they don't."

"Make it ten and we have a deal." 

It was ridiculous, the whole thing, but being tied to a headboard and more aroused by the moment made Beau feel a little reckless. "Five if anyone comes, ten if one of them has two different colored eyes."

"Oooh," said Pike appreciatively. "I'll take it." She slapped Beau's ass and giggled when Beau rocked forward with a hiss. "Sorry." She was definitely lying. "I would've shaken your hand, but…"

"Yep," Beau managed. "Got it. Fuck."

She twitched when Pike's hand came to rest gently over the rapidly warming spot. "Soon, I promise." She struck Beau twice in quick succession, sharp pops that split the air and made Beau grunt as she worked to control her breathing through her nose.

When she could gather herself enough to turn, she looked over shoulder again. "You're not a Goliath in disguise are you?" Her voice was a little cracked. She didn't really mind.

A lighter slap on the upper inside of her thigh that made Beau's hips snap up and her legs pull in reflexively. "Nope," said Pike as Beau worked to breathe and open her thighs again. "But I did learn a thing or two from my buddy."

Her small hand slid up Beau's skin to rest right up next to Beau's cunt and then finally, Beau felt confident, steady fingers on her dripping center. It was a gentle touch, but Beau was more aroused than she'd realized and her head dropped between her arms. "Fuuuuck, Pike." Her ass was on fire from just those few hits, and the sound Pike's fingers made as they slid through hot slick made Beau clench on nothing.

She felt the sheets pull slightly as the bed depressed, and then Pike's voice came more from directly behind. "I'm going to use just my fingers for now I think. How does that sound?"

"Fucking heavenly," Beau replied, and without further ado she felt Pike slide inside of her and stretch her - wider than she'd expected, which meant she was probably starting with at least three.

She could probably fit her entire hand into Beau's cunt, actually, and with that neat little thought Beau felt her brain switch mercifully and definitively off.


	2. I'm Not Where I'm S'posed to Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pike wins a bet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 needs editing and chapter 4 needs writing but here's ch. 2, it's ready (and a bit shorter).

Pike watched the last of the tension release from between Beau's taut shoulder blades and smiled as she continued to rock her fingers in and out of the wet heat of her. Now she could focus on the other, better kind of tension.

Beau was stunning - there wasn't much else in the way of words for it. A wonder of lean muscle and keen intellect, wrapped around a heart Pike could see bleeding from thirty paces.

Beau didn't seem to be able to see inside of herself, choosing instead to operate on a version of her she thought better or more capable than who she was. Maybe if you saw enough of the world, people started to look like patterns, because the way Beau attached so fiercely and quickly reminded Pike of nobody more than Vax - which had earned her new friend a kind of inside joke of the double tied ropes. But more than that, the way this woman didn't seem to know her own heart, opting instead to read the world through a colder version of herself to stay safe…Pike needed to go and see Percy after this. Part of her wished she could bring Beau.

Beneath her, the woman in question whimpered softly as her hips gave a small and stuttered roll of their own volition. It would be time to move her soon, take the weight off her arms, and Pike squeezed one sharp hip and shushed Beau gently before adding her fourth finger. She marveled as her hand disappeared almost entirely inside the warm pressure of this remarkable woman, this Beau with her scars and her sharp angles and the raw affection those qualities covered up from the world.

"Just a few more minutes," she murmured. "Then we're gonna get you good and settled."

The groan that drifted back to Pike had something of a wrecked "please" in it, and Pike loved this - loved being in a position where she could use her hands and her body to heal in a different way, arguably more profane. Spirits were not as easily healed as bodies, though the connection was there if you knew where to push. It never got old to Pike, knowing where to push. It was always an honor, for someone to open themselves so completely to her.

Pike sheathed her hand inside of Beau and used her thumb to draw lazy circular shapes on the swollen nub it rested against. Beau's thighs clenched and spread wider, and Pike didn't hold back on her praise of the sight. "You're amazing, Beau. I love how red you are where I hit you and how you keep your legs open for me. Thank you." She pressed a kiss to the darkening welt left by an earlier hit to Beau's ass and withdrew her hand.

She chuckled at the whine that left Beau and dragged a quick, affectionate rub over her clit to make her jump. "I told you we were going to turn you over, you big baby. Let me get those ropes for you." She trailed her slick fingers from Beau's ass to the radiant green tattoo at the back of her neck as she made her way to Beau's front.

And gods it was tempting, the thought of standing before Beau like this and letting her press her clever tongue to Pike's own cunt. But they were still here for Beau, possibly would be all night, and that was its own reward too.

Beau rested her weight back on her thighs and watched Pike work at the soft bonds, catching her breath just enough to mutter a swear as Pike checked the knots again - Beau really did remind her of Vax - and kissed her. She liked how it felt to kiss Beau, but there was a kind of shyness to the way she let Pike take her that made her a little sad, too. Beau really wasn't used to accepting good things. She couldn't see what Pike had seen in the barest of moments she had glimpsed them all together in town: every person in that group was necessary and beloved.

They would come for her. Pike would bet on it - in fact, she had.

She broke their kiss and took Beau's nipples in her hands to pinch them gently as she said, "Turn over on your back for me, alright?" and released.

Beau gave a hazy, quick nod and pushed herself ungracefully to the side to roll over and present her wrists unprompted, a pleading look in her eyes. Pike leaned down to brush her hair out of her face and smiled softly at her. "We're gonna get you there, don't worry."

Beau's eyes shut with a whimper that went wholly unchecked and made Pike's heart tug to hear. She lifted Beau's wrists and stepped directly over her face to get a better range of movement with the ropes, and startled a little when Beau turned her head to kiss the inside of her calf.

"You're so sweet," she told Beau. "Now. We are in a place where people expect to hear sounds, so you don't have to be shy. But I can gag you, if you like."

Some of the color that had faded while Beau caught her breath came back to her now. "No," she said. "Wanna make noise for you." She glanced away at Pike's encouraging smile, embarrassed. She also looked like she was going to say something else but thought better of it, and Pike reached down to cup her jaw gently. "Beau?"

Her fingers flexed in their bonds. "Will you blindfold me?"

A simple request, and a demonstration of how much Beau was allowing herself to trust Pike in spite of their short acquaintanceship - or perhaps because of it. Either way, Pike was pleased. She nodded. "Will that make it easier for you to let go?"

Beau's skin was warm and sweaty under Pike's fingers as her head bobbed. Pike's heart swelled again at Beau's trust and she leaned to kiss her forehead before reaching for the remaining straps. "Thank you for telling me," she said. "Just let me know if you need it to come off."

"Okay."

Those blue eyes closed as Pike wound the long, soft fabric twice gently around and pressed the ends inside themselves to loosely secure the arrangement. She rested a hand on Beau's cheek and marveled when she nuzzled into it without reservation.

"Are you ready?" Pike asked. She tweaked a nipple lightly at Beau's nod, and even that simple touch made her overstimulated body snap up with a yelp. "Words, please, since you can still say them."

"Yes," Beau choked. "Please, I need you to fuck me, Pike."

Pike's own cunt gave a throb at that, and she pressed a quick kiss to Beau's lips before moving down to step between those muscled thighs and slowly push them open. "I'm gonna use my hand and my mouth," she said. "Hold on tight."

She dropped to her knees between Beau's legs and didn't waste another second diving in. Beau's curls tickled her cheeks as her hips jerked immediately, helplessly under Pike's tongue, and she slipped her four fingers inside with one hand while she reached down to touch herself with the other. She made a soft noise against Beau's core at the sensation of her own fingers, and Beau keened in response.

Pike took them both apart quickly, reveling in the way Beau's gasps worked back up to moans and her moans to rhythmic cries until finally she went rigid under Pike with a short wail that choked into silence as her walls gripped around Pike's hand and her back bowed to press herself harder against Pike's mouth.

The room narrowed to the feeling of Beau and the smell of Beau and the taste of Beau and the joy of being allowed to do this for someone like Beau, and it was with her tongue gently stroking Beau's clit on the comedown that Pike's own orgasm caught and she simply exhaled a muffled "gods" against the salt wetness of her as she came.

Pike sat up and wiped her mouth, breathing slightly harder than normal as she watched the long scar on Beau's chest rise and fall with the great heaves of air she was pulling in. Pike stepped forward and straddled Beau's stomach - she could grind like this, maybe later - and kissed her way up Beau's throat to her lips.

Beau was still wrecked, and a groan pulled from between those chapped lips at the taste of herself on Pike's mouth. Her restlessness was good - it meant Pike had been correct in her initial assumption that Beau was someone it would take a while to pull apart completely. They had time, and Pike wasn't finished with her.

"Now," she said when she pulled back. "I am going to throw on a tunic and go downstairs to bring us up some water, and I fully expect to run into someone you know."

Beau grimaced, but it was a little undercut by the way her body twitched under Pike. "Still don't think so."

Pike patted her cheek and climbed off of her to the floor. "I know you don't, but in the event that I did, what would you like me to say?"

"Pike," Beau managed. "If they are here and Yasha is with them, you might as well bring her up. Because it's not going to happen."

Pike's head poked out of her shift and she frowned thoughtfully. "But to be clear, if she's here…"

"She's not." Silence while Pike tied her belt. Finally Beau sighed. "Will you bring me two glasses of water? Then I can go for some more if you want."

Pike tapped the inside of Beau's slick-shiny thigh. "I'll bring plenty, and I absolutely want."

Beau's smile was shy and sharp all at once under her blindfold. "If they are here…no. Never mind. I'll be here when you get back."

Pike looked at her, undone and bare and glistening atop the sheets. "Yes you will."

* * *

It took her less than ten seconds to spot them. Three figures of vastly different heights - she'd expected more, honestly, but it was a brothel after all - and two of them were whispering furiously while the third stayed closest to the door with her hood up and her chin angled toward the steps leading to the rooms above.

Pike waved to the waiter and signaled before walking right up to the tallest of them - she was as tall as Keyleth, but made of two of her - and said, "I have to assume you're Yasha?"

The other two hooded figures nearby stopped talking and turned to her, and the woman in question looked down at her in surprise.

"It's okay," Pike said. "I'm with Beau."

Two hoods came off immediately, the third and smallest following like an afterthought. A halfling, a tiefling, and someone clearly touched by divinity stared mutely.

"With Beau?" This was the tiefling.

"Or _with Beau?"_ The halfling made a crude gesture and dodged the tiefling's elbow. It was all in good fun in spite of their curiosity - the tiefling was trying not to smile and flicked a glance towards the tall woman with - yes, she had two different colored eyes. These were people who could afford to be relaxed with strangers because they knew their own strength. Just like Beau.

"I'm Pike," she said.

A blue hand extended immediately. "I'm Jester," said the tiefling. "That's No - er, Veth, sorry - and you're obviously with Beau since you knew _Yasha_." She said Yasha's name with just enough of a drag on it to make Pike think that this girl had probably read a romance novel or two.

Yasha looked to Jester with a stare somewhere between exhausted, defeated, and gently tolerant. She was also, Pike could just see, blushing.

"Is she alright?" Yasha said to Pike.

Pike smiled. "Better now, I bet."

The tall, sad woman looked away. "Doubtful."

Oh, Pike realized. This was a two-way miscommunication. She thought of Beau's fresh scar and the way she was certain that Yasha of all people wouldn't come for her, and pieces of the story began to take distant shape.

She placed a gentle hand on Yasha's hip and waited for her to look back down. "She didn't think you would come," she said. "But I knew you would."

"How the fuck did you know that?" The halfling - Veth - had an explosive quality to her voice that told Pike somehow that the shouting and aggression were not necessarily out of the norm - going by the relaxed postures of the other two, this was still a friendly chat. "Have you been spying on us? I'll kick your ass!"

Yasha was watching her now with intense interest, but Jester's tail flicked in a nonchalant way as she stepped in. "Of course we came," she said. "We'll always come."

"So will Beau, apparently," Veth muttered.

Pike took in the three of them and missed her friends terribly. "First, I haven't been watching you," she said. "I told Beau - I've _been_ you. Several years ago, I traveled with a group of friends just like you. I came to Wildemount a few days ago to help in Rexxentrum, but when I got here my visions showed me you guys being recognized for your work at the chantry instead." She did not miss the way Yasha's arms jerked under her cloak at the mention of the chantry or the way Jester glanced up at her in concern. "I am a cleric of Sarenrae," Pike continued, "and when I saw Beau come in tonight…I knew what to do." She smiled. "She loves you all very much, you know."

Jester scoffed an indignant "of course she does!" but Yasha glanced away.

"She talked to you?" Veth was incredulous enough that she forgot to be loud.

Pike leered, just for her and hopefully where Yasha couldn't see. "She said enough."

Jester nudged Yasha, but there was infinite care in the gesture and in her teasing words. "I told you that would work."

Yasha's blush deepened even as her jaw set in a way that reminded Pike keenly of the woman tied to the bed upstairs.

"Yasha, I think it's best if you come with me," Pike said kindly. "You can help me carry up some water."

Veth's mouth opened with unmistakable intent that Pike recognized intimately, and Yasha's hand slid very neatly and casually over it. Pike half expected her to get bitten. She also got the impression it wouldn't matter. Veth clearly arrived at the same conclusion, dropping into a sulky compliance that was also familiar.

"Okay," said Yasha. "I will go with you." There was no hesitation and no implication of a threat. Beau was involved, and Yasha would come whether she believed she ought to or not. 

Pike turned to the tiefling - Jester. "If you want to stay here tonight, I can pay for your room."

Jester and Veth looked at each other. Veth shrugged from behind Yasha's hand.

"We can take care of it," Jester said, "but thank you!"

"It's really alright," Pike offered. "I did just win a bet."

She purposefully didn't turn to see Yasha's face - Veth's grin as Yasha's hand lowered was all she needed.

"Okay," Jester agreed brightly.

"Throw in a drink," said Veth. "A good one." Her grin widened, giving Pike the disorienting sensation that the halfling had more teeth than were visible.

Pike grinned right back. "The gods kept my friends and your friends twenty years apart for a reason, that's for sure." She waved towards the bar. "Just tell the keeper to put it on my tab."

"We will!" said Jester. "Tell Beau hi for me, Yasha. I'll send a message to the others. Make sure Beau comes home and that she knows we miss her _sooo much_ and she hasn't even run away yet."

Yasha's mouth worked. "I mean, I'll probably see you in a few minutes when I bring her to our room?"

Jester and Pike traded a significant glance, eyebrows raised in a mutual understanding.

"Yasha," said Veth. "You're adorable."

"Alright, let's go." Pike shooed the bemused woman gently towards the bar with its huge jug of water and tankards and waved to the other two as she followed. "I'll take care of them," she said. "It was good to meet you."


	3. I Hope That You're Missin' Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pike's back! Just Pike. Just Pike that can be heard anyway. It's probably just Pike.

Pike had to be fucking with her. Tied to the bed, blindfolded, naked and covered in her own dried slick…Beau's thighs shifted as she tried to imagine Yasha - of all people - walking in on this particular sight and _wow_. Shame, excitement, confusion, and definite arousal. Beau sighed and clenched harder on nothing, waiting for Pike to come back so she could try to gloat about being right - and fail, because it was Pike. 

She wondered idly if they could keep her, flinched inwardly a little at the realization she was still thinking as part of a team. Still? When had that become a reflex at all? 

A small knock pulled Beau from her thoughts, the sounds outside growing louder as the door opened. "I'm back," said Pike. "I brought water." She sounded altogether cheerful, but then it was Pike, and Beau might have only met her tonight but she was fairly confident that "cheerful" was her resting state.

"I don't hear anyone else," she said.

"I know. Here, open up." Pike climbed up and lifted Beau's head to help her sip from the tankard. She was good - knew exactly how quickly to let Beau drink without spilling it on her. Cleric stuff, she figured, though the one time Jester had tried she'd ended up soaked.

Best not to think about Jester right now. "Thanks," Beau said when she finished. She heard the cup set down on the table by the bed.

"Tell me why you left," said Pike without preamble. "Please."

Pike couldn't see her eyes, but the blink Beau gave from under her blindfold was more for herself anyway. "Uh…I mean, it's kind of a long story -"

"Not what led to it, just why." Her voice was firm but kind in that very Pike way she had.

She was sitting near Beau but not touching her, which made Beau nervous. She could do a shame thing, if that's where they were headed. It was kind of worse that they weren't. Beau had all of this shame and nowhere to put it.

But that wasn't Pike's problem, she knew, and shame didn't seem to be much of Pike's thing, so a straightforward answer it would be.

"They don't need me," she said, shrugging slightly as best she could like this. "I'm not…Pike if you met them, you'd know. They're amazing. They're _everything_. And I just realized, you know, one day it ends. It's inevitable." She turned her head in Pike's direction. "It ended for you."

A pause. "We settled into our own lives, yes," Pike said. "But they still very much include one another. I'm going to go see them when I leave here."

Beau swallowed. "How long's it been?"

Not pity, but close: "Beau, I know where you're going with that. Can you accept that we got there together? That we are forever joined even in our separate kinds of happiness?"

That wasn't how it worked. "There is no happiness if I'm not with them," she insisted. "At least if I go on my own terms, they can't be taken from me." Her jaw clenched, more to stop tears than from anger. It was easier somehow, blindfolded and tied. "I don't ever want to be apart from them. There wasn't life before them. They'll move on and I'll…find my own way. This is just the fast route."

She could feel disappointment inside herself even as she said the words, and scorn rose to follow. What was there to be disappointed about? She caused this. She was not someone people stuck around for. And she worked damn hard to make sure people knew they didn't owe her anything, so what point was there to getting all bent out of shape when they took her at her word?

Pike seemed to notice she was hitting something raw, but Beau was almost past the point of caring. "And Yasha?" Pike asked quietly.

Beau's scoff broke, betraying her. "She's the best of them, and she can't even look at me."

"Nobody can look away from you for long, Beau. Nobody who knows a damn thing," Pike added when Beau opened her mouth. "I get the feeling something happened and you haven't talked." She felt Pike climb up on the bed to sit next to Beau. "Misunderstandings happen to everybody, you know. It's okay to have to ask people if the message you got was the one they sent."

Shame coiled in Beau's chest, a long and thorn-studded rope that felt suddenly like it might be as old as Beau herself. "What's there to talk about? Some asshole took Yasha's fucking _mind_ and she blames herself for what happened. Look at me." She felt Pike's hand rest on her hip, but she said nothing.

Beau assumed she wasn't looking, that somehow she'd been spotted long before now, but she'd started talking and couldn't seem to stop. "I am not the person to teach someone how to fucking forgive themselves, Pike. Or tell anyone how to think. I was never mad at her. I thought maybe…" Her throat closed and halted her, and Beau took a deep breath as Pike's hand on her squeezed once in comfort. "I watched her let someone beat the shit out of her rather than talk to me or anyone. I knew she was feeling guilty, but that's…maybe I was hoping for something, but it wasn't that."

Beau had tried not to look at Yasha's face as she turned to go tonight, but selfishness had won out and she'd snatched a final glance for the road. Those eyes, cast to the floor beside the table and looking nearly as empty as they had under Obann's command. That couldn't have been from her though, not really. That damn guilt.

She turned her head towards Pike in spite of the blindfold and dredged up the final piece of the story, the part that would make Pike understand. Probably it would shatter whatever version of Beau she saw when she smiled at her, but Beau deserved it - and letting people down was nothing new. "I can't get mad at her for not talking," she rasped. "I couldn't either and I just abandoned her. I abandoned all of them. That's why I knew they wouldn't be here looking for me. It was shitty and they deserve better." She took a breath. "Yasha most of all."

Silence stretched for a moment, and Beau flinched when Pike's lips touched her forehead. The small hand on her hip vanished and reappeared on her cheek, stroking softly. "I didn't get the door all the way shut," she said kindly. "I'll be right back, okay?"

It was not at all what Beau had expected Pike to say, but she didn't sound mad or disappointed or confused, so she'd take the win. Beau inhaled again, a deeper breath that shuddered audibly. "Yeah, sorry. Just. Give me a few minutes, I'll be fine."

"We aren't done," Pike assured. "Take your time."

A lesser person, Beau thought distantly, might back off the idea of fucking after that. The joke was on them; Beau had always done her best processing with either someone's fist coming at her or three fingers inside her while being kissed until she couldn't see straight. Turning her brain off let things simmer without her there to overthink and spoil it.

And there was so much more to process suddenly, so if Pike was game to keep going, she wouldn't question it. Two minutes and she'd be golden.

Beau heard fabric ripple and jumped as something weighted and warm settled on her body from her chest to down past her knees. She could hear Pike's feet pattering on the wood by the bed as she pulled at - what, the blanket? Sheet? - to cover Beau. She was on the cusp of asking something clever like "done already?" or "hey what the fuck?" and then the smell hit her.

Trees and sweat and a storm freshly broken, with just a little bit of woodsmoke and something faintly sweet, like flowers. The door shut across the room, but Pike was still next to her.

The footsteps coming towards them now were soft and heavy, and the fingers that cupped Beau's face and pushed the blindfold up and off were large and calloused and shaking, just a little.

"It was never just guilt, Beau," said Yasha, and her eyes even under the blue paint were shiny and pink at the edges. 

* * *

A long moment passed during which Beau grappled with the reality that nothing in her had been prepared for this in any way, for the fact of Yasha standing here in a tavern on the outskirts of Nicodranas and looking at her like…like at all, but even more so like she was _hurting_. 

Some part of Beau wanted to reach for Yasha immediately, dry those tears and pull her down to have a real talk for once in both of their fucking lives.

Another part of her wanted to grab those broad shoulders and shake them instead, demand to know what part of Yasha had thought avoiding her was going to solve any of this.

Either way, she figured, it was probably for the best that her hands were tied.

But she was still staring at Yasha in open astonishment, and she had to do something. She blurted the first thing that came to mind. "You came looking for me?"

Yasha's mouth quirked but her eyes grew sadder and somehow soft. "None of us really believed you were just taking a night to yourself, Beau. We know you."

If she started trying to deal with that statement, they would be here all night. Beau pulled on her anger, coaxed it up to fortify her as she lifted her chin defiantly. "Not asking about everyone. You. You came, you're here, and I need you to spell out why for me because you haven't looked me in the eye for a week."

And even though she was the one tied in place and naked under Yasha's cloak, Yasha was somehow the one who looked small suddenly. Her eyes slid to the middle of Beau, to the place the long and puckered line would be if she could see it. "Did she tell you about her scar?"

It took Beau a second to realize the question was directed at Pike - she'd forgotten about her quiet new friend and now wondered briefly what she might have told Yasha to get her up here.

Pike didn't bat an eye. "She asked me not to touch it, that's all. But Yasha…" she waited for her sad eyes to pull from Beau to her own. "I don't need her to explain."

Yasha looked ageless then, like the guilt weighing on her had come generations before her and would linger when she was gone. She wore it like a stone around her neck, and Beau could hardly bear the way she bent under it. "Would you have still asked me to stand at the door and listen?" Yasha asked softly. "If you'd known I had caused it?"

  
"Yes." Pike didn't hesitate, which had the added effect of cutting off Beau's protest before it left her throat.

Yasha visibly started. "Why?"

This time Beau got there first. "Because the only one who thinks you would hurt me on purpose is you," she growled. "You are, to a perfect stranger, exactly that transparent."

Yasha looked to her helplessly, and then back to Pike as she interrupted gently in that inoffensive way she had. "That's only partially true. I know how to tell when two people are blaming themselves over the same thing." She looked kindly to Beau, rested a hand on the cloak over her ribs. "You didn't think Yasha would come." She glanced up. "And you didn't think Beau wanted you to. You think I hadn't guessed already, when I asked you?"

Beau knew by the look on Yasha's face that she was struggling with the overwhelm that came from Pike's concentrated affection - Beau had almost gotten used to it and even she felt better looking at Pike out of the corner of her eye right now.

Yasha's eyes didn't quite make it to Beau's, but rested somewhere around her jaw. "Did you want me to come after you?"

That felt a little like an unfair question, more so for the way Beau could feel the focus of the tension shift to her. "It wasn't a matter of wanting. I…" She broke off, frustrated. "It wasn't about you." She hated how that sounded, saw in the way Yasha's shoulders fell that she'd fucked up her words and done more harm than good. Again.

"She means it wasn't an option for her to want," Pike said. They both looked to her, but she had eyes only for Beau. "I'm right, aren't I? It never occurred to you that it was possible. That's why you can't say you wanted it." Beau's jaw set for reasons she couldn't fully understand, but Pike only patted her once over the cloak and looked up to Yasha. "It's _not_ about you, Yasha. I think I understand something about Beau now, seeing you two here like this." _Oh do tell_ , Beau thought, but she kept her mouth shut. Pike petted the cloak and Beau once and said, "Beau is a survivor."

Beau hadn't been sure how Pike was going to finish that sentence, and now that she had her feelings were even more mixed. Something about the way Pike said "survivor" made Beau's heart twist. She was proud of surviving, of staring down a world that constantly wanted to drive her down and hold her there and throwing up both middle fingers.

But in Pike's kind voice, said like that, "survivor" just sounded _tragic_.

Beau squinted at Pike, trying to figure out what part of her staying alive made that cherubic face look so sad. "Why's that a bad thing? And why just me? Yasha is too. And I saw your scars - so are you."

Pike shook her head. "I don't just mean not dying, Beau." That failed to make sense to Beau. That was the definition of survival: not dying. She was pretty clear on that. "You've never put your life in anyone else's hands," Pike elaborated. "You don't expect to be caught if you fall."

Beau blinked. "If I fall, it's because I was being an idiot. Why would I expect someone to bail me out for that?" Her fingers were clenched, she realized, and she relaxed them with effort. "I told you," she said tiredly. "They don't need me anymore. I'd just be a waste of spells when I got my ass kicked."

"Beau…"

She looked to Yasha, alarmed by the naked sorrow there. It seemed for her, not about her, and for the first time, Beau was starting to feel like she was actually trapped. "Why are you both looking at me like that?" She hated how it came out like a protest, like a defense. "It's fine, that's how it works. I'm not _mad_." Just disappointed, she thought. Like an idiot.

"You would have come after any of us," said Yasha. "You _did_ come after me."

"You were mind controlled and forced to do awful shit," said Beau flatly. "That is not at all the same thing as being a coward and running out on your friends."

Yasha reached out, hesitated, then gently pushed a strand of Beau's hair back and out of her face. "I didn't want to leave you," she said. "And you didn't want to leave...us. It's that simple. Why would we allow one and not the other?"

Beau didn't know what to do with the compassion in Yasha's voice, the affection and sadness where there should have been accusation and hurt. She also didn't know how to answer, which was happening a lot suddenly. She looked to Pike with the intention of throwing some kind of sarcastic comment about how Yasha should ask her and not Beau, but she couldn't have done it, not even if Pike had been looking smug and not absolutely _heartbroken_ on her behalf.

"It's always been just you, hasn't it?" Pike said softly. "All of my friends and I grew up with somebody to lean on. Even if it was just one person. But you were truly the only person you could trust."

Yasha made a soft noise off to the side, an emotion Beau could not immediately identify and did not dare risk witnessing.

Pike smoothed her free hand over Beau's forehead like she was a child, and she found that the instinct she had to fight this time was not to flinch away, but to lean in.

"Beau," said Pike. "You deserve to be cared for."

Beau's traitor eyes burned. She couldn't figure out exactly what about Pike's simple words was raking through her, but she did know one thing - a brittle, cold certainty that had kept her alive. "I don't deserve shit."

The sudden pressure of Yasha's fingers on her jaw startled her. There was no anger in that grip, but neither did it yield - not until she was looking up at Yasha's face. There was something there in her expression that Beau wasn't used to seeing on her, something certain and fathomlessly deep, and it held her there just as surely as a physical touch. "You're wrong," she said.

It was both an observation and a command, and Beau bristled in response to the sense of a hole opening inside of her, yawning uncertainty calling.

"Prove it."

Yasha didn't waver. "Tell me how."

"You came after me," Beau hissed, flaring to life. "That's a good thing." It was far easier to say the words in confrontation, and so she leaned into it. "You're a good thing," she insisted. "One of the best, no matter what you say. So explain what I'm wrong about, Yasha, because I sure as hell don't deserve you."

Something flickered up behind Yasha's eyes, and Beau dimly registered a quiet gasp of something like anticipation from Pike. Beau was feeling it too - Yasha had the face of someone about to tell her off for being an asshole, and the sight made her heart sink a little but it also filled her with quiet relief. Anger, at least, was familiar territory. Beau had fought with just about everyone she'd ever known. Parent, teacher, guard, friend, shopkeep with an attitude problem, you name it. The fact that Yasha fit neatly into none of those categories didn't deter her a bit. Beau was fundamentally wired for the inevitability of people getting mad at her.

Yasha leaned over suddenly, and Beau jerked her chin up. About six arguments were already clamoring to be fired off, and another five were brewing. Nothing Yasha could say didn't have an immediate rebuttal.

Beau was ready to fight, almost hoping for it.

Which was why her mind shut down entirely when instead of speaking, Yasha took a quick breath and crashed her lips into Beau's. All of the words she'd readied crammed themselves against the door from her brain to her mouth, and all she managed when Yasha pulled away was a pitiful, belated squeak of shock.

Yasha's smile was somehow wistful and smug at the same time, and she made no effort to disguise the husky quality to her voice. "Was that clear enough?"

Beau nodded shakily. "Pretty clear," she said, and in return she didn't bother covering up the way her own voice cracked. There was a time Beau would have felt better if Yasha _had_ tried to hide. She would have let her get away with it, told herself she was making shit up.

Beau also had the vague impression that the time in question had ended about ten seconds ago. Yasha's eyes were dark with intent, and something inside of Beau was igniting to meet it. She grinned now, a slow and lazy thing that spread from the swooping feeling she got at the sight of Yasha's flushed face and her slightly heavier breathing. "I'm a quick study," she rasped. "But there's always room for improvement."

Yasha exhaled incredulously. "You," she accused, "are absolutely insufferable."

The sentiment was familiar, but the clear affection behind the words - that was new. And so was the second kiss that punctuated her words now, longer this time and unmistakable in its message.

Yasha wanted her, and she wanted her _around_ , and Beau's head was spinning far too quickly to make sense of which realization was hitting her harder.

She remembered Pike this time, when they broke apart, and tore her eyes from Yasha to find her new friend with her chin in her hand and smiling from ear to ear.

"I cannot stress enough how awkward that would be if you were literally anybody else," Beau said, slightly breathless from that second, searing kiss.

Pike's eyebrows raised, but her smile didn't falter. "I can leave if you'd like."

"No," Beau said quickly, maybe too quickly. She turned back to Yasha. "Ah, actually I guess... I'm still good to go, _believe me_ , but I won't if you…I don't know what I'm doing," she finished lamely.

Something about Yasha seemed steadier now, and she bumped her knuckles affectionately against Beau's cheek before looking up to Pike. "I know this is good for Beau, and so are you. You are kind." Pike tipped her head forward in an acknowledgement Beau would call shy on anyone else, and Beau didn't miss the way Yasha didn't comment on Pike's appearance, filing the observation away for later.

Now Yasha looked to Beau, but she was still addressing Pike. "I want to talk properly before we're left alone in a room together like this. But for tonight…"

Her face was asking a question of Beau, and all Beau could think was _oh hell yes_. Yasha had nailed it. Every part of Beau still wanted what she'd wanted from the start - some rough tumble snatched in the night, to be completely taken apart by those hands. But she absolutely refused to take a path that led to parting ways the next day. It wasn't _enough_ anymore, and the fact that Yasha felt the same way had her feeling a little lightheaded.

Possibly all of the blood in her brain had suddenly found a more interesting place to be.

Something must have come through on her face, because now Yasha smiled. It was a hungry smile, a baring of teeth and of something else softer and even less fragile. She glanced back up, and this time Beau followed her gaze eagerly to the gnome waiting politely for their verdict. "I think we'd be glad to have you stay, Pike."

Pike's blue eyes shone. "Oh, I'm so glad," she said. "This _will_ be fun." She crossed her arms on the bed and leaned up at Yasha, mischief in her smile. "Follow or lead?"

Yasha eyed the ropes binding Beau's wrists, her cloak over Beau, and the water at the bedside. "If you would like to lead, I think I am happy to follow." She considered. "A no for me on the ropes though, please."

"Of course," Pike agreed easily. "You can do as much or as little as you'd like. You don't even have to take your clothes off if you don't want to."

Beau sat up a little at that. "Hey, do I get a vote?" 

Yasha raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure you're in a position to make demands."

Beau flexed her hands in their bonds. "Aw come on, this is when I do my best work."

Pike laughed and climbed up to start undoing the ropes holding Beau's wrists to the headboard. "You sure are lively suddenly," she said. "It looks good on you."

Beau blushed deep and hot and turned her face away at the delight spreading across Yasha's features, all her teasing bravado retreating with sudden haste.

"She's right," said Yasha, and Beau whipped her head back around when felt the edge of the cloak lift on her shoulder. "You look a little warm," Yasha teased, but she was paused and waiting for Beau. "Shall I take this off for you?"

Gods. They were actually going to kill her. Pike's kindness and affection had been easy enough to accept because she had stupidly assumed Pike didn't know her. Now it turned out that Pike had her number, and Yasha was here too. She was utterly done for.

And she couldn't wait.

Blushing harder than she thought possible, Beau could only manage a nod, lips pressed together.

"Beau." She felt Yasha's fingers cool on her flaming cheek and glanced sideways and up at her. "Is this okay?" Yasha was smiling, but her question was sincere.

Beau remembered Pike's rule just as her wrists were tugged in gentle reminder. "Yeah," she said, and her voice was a mess. "Take it off."

Yasha brushed a thumb over the corner of her mouth. "Thank you," she said, and before Beau could stammer a reply the cloak began pulling slowly away.

Her wrists were freed, but Pike simply stood and held them, rubbing her thumbs gently over the divots left by the ropes and watching intently. Yasha was in no hurry, and goosebumps prickled along every freshly exposed inch of skin as Beau tried desperately not to squirm under the attentive gazes of the two women drinking her in. She was only halfway exposed and it was already so much.

She could smell Yasha's cloak again as it dragged slowly across her body, and the little intake of breath Yasha gave when the heavy material brushed over Beau's nipple and made her twitch sent a throb straight through her.

"You're so beautiful, Beau," Yasha murmured, and at that she had to close her eyes and turn away again.

Pike shushed her gently as she leaned down, and her small hand on Beau's cheek was a balm. "Is there anything you'd like me not to do, now that Yasha's here?" She asked.

Beau swallowed. "No. You can do anything you want. Both of you."

"You're perfect," said Yasha, and her tentative fingers rested lightly on Beau's hip and made her shiver.

"She's pretty much the best," Pike agreed, and Beau groaned and tried to pull her hands to cover her face. Pike laughed softly and didn't allow it. "Come on," she coaxed. "Sit up for me so we can figure out the best way to do this. Yasha?"

Beau opened her eyes just in time to see Yasha pull herself back to the present and glance at Pike.

"Right," she said. "Give me just a moment."

"Take your time," Pike replied. "We've got all night."

Beau barely heard her, transfixed on Yasha's fingers working at the straps of her clothes. All night, at the mercy of one woman who seemed to have her figured out within minutes and another that had apparently been putting the time in for far longer than Beau had realized.

Tomorrow there would be tough conversations. But tonight, there was only the ripple of Yasha's black and white hair over the pale and muscular chest appearing by degrees, and the sound of Pike's quiet giggle as she pulled her tunic over head. She felt Pike start to tie her anew, higher this time, and at the first cinch of a knot Beau let her thoughts go and relaxed.

"Good girl," Pike murmured, and at least for tonight, Beau could believe it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might leave it like this, but it'll be here if I ever get The Feeling, you know? Urges come in cycles, etc. and the canon show is kind of grabbing me by the soul at the moment. So we'll see.

**Author's Note:**

> More to come! Been working on this intermittently since early November. Just a fun side project thing.


End file.
